Movie review: Wanted

I knew two things when I went to see Wanted: It was an action movie, starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. First, the real star is James McAvoy, unknown to me until then, who plays Wesley Gibson, a man with talents he doesn't know he has, until he his contacted by a member of The Fraternity, an assassins group. That member is Fox, played by Jolie. The leader of the group is Sloan, played by Freeman. Second, while it is an action movie, I found it to be more then what the trailer let us know. That's a good thing. And I'm not just talking about a single surprise twist to the story at the end of the movie, but several plot development to the story. Of course, it does have it's lot of improbable or even impossible scenes, has can be witnessed in the trailer.

I do not want to spoil the story, so I'll keep it brief. Gibson works in a cubicle, in an office, as an accountant. He's been at it for a while and he'd love nothing more than leaving that job, but doesn't have the nerves to do it. He keeps taking the abuse from the boss and takes pills to deal with the stress. After his encounter with Fox and a wild ride running from another assassin who rebelled against The Fraternity, he gets to meet Sloan and the rest of the gang. He learns about his father's history with the group and about his own abilities. At first, he doesn't want to join, but after a few more work related events and other events in his personal life, he will of course join the guild.

What follows is training, missions and revenge. One of the thing that pushed him was the fact that his father was killed by a rogue member of The Fraternity. Everything leads to this final vengeance, or so he believes. Other things gets in the way. In particular, the obligatory assassination orders, which are summoned in a very unique way. I can't really say more, except that the visuals are very good, there are many great action scenes, as well as over the top sequences and a bit of humour here and there, for good measure. Good casting too, I didn't know many of the actors, but they did a good job.

Of course, there's a lot of violence, so don't bring young kids along. And one word of advice: Don't stand on that X on the floor... ;-)